Very nice article that asks whether the Church (or church) can handle people who doubt. Can it welcome uncertainty. Is it a safe place to form, not just conform. Finding a place to ask the tough questions.
Category: Faith and Doubt
Quote of William James, and the Search for the Divine
"'Love your enemies!' Mark you, not simply those who happen not to be your friends, but your enemies, your positive and active enemies. Either this is a mere Oriental hyperbole, a bit of verbal extravagance meaning only that we should, as far as we can, abate our animosities, or else it is sincere and literal. …
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Honoring “The Other Guy.” Part 2
Thomas’ primary claim to fame is as a DOUBTER. But I would like to suggest that a better description of Thomas is as a FAITHFUL DOUBTER or perhaps FAITHFUL SCEPTIC. I have suggested before that “faithful and doubting” might be better than “faithful.” Faithful and doubting means a faithfulness that has been tempered in the …
Honoring “The Other Guy.” Part I
History is generally written in praise, and contempt, of the so called "great men" (and yes, women, since I am using the inclusive understanding of men). News is created by "news makers," celebrities, stars. In the Bible, David (later King David) is one of the great ones... the one with the courage and chutzpah to …
Missions and the Historical Jesus
As an Evangelical Christian, I tend to take a rather dim view of the movement to discover the “Jesus of History” at least as it supposedly differs from the “Jesus of Faith.” Many who are part of the search for the “Historic Jesus” have presuppositions that I would not accept: Philosophical Naturalism... …
“Prophecy” and a Confession, of Sorts
I was talking to my son about a logical glitch I have in a couple of my blog posts from a few months ago. He suggested that, instead of fixing them, I put a blog post about them. In one post, I was complaining about a self-styled "prophet" from America, who had made a "prophecy" …
Welcoming Dissent
In any group there is a strong pressure to conform... coming to agreement in group dogma, group norms, group traditions, group taboos. Even in groups that focus on being open-minded, strong dogma, norms, and taboos build up enforcing what is acceptable open-mindedness and what is unacceptable. It is curious how close-minded "open-minded" groups commonly are. …
In Search of… the “Radical Middle”
When I worked at a Summer Camp, oh... 30 + years ago, our camp director liked to give this illustration. “Suppose you are walking along a a trail the winds along half way up a very steep mountain. On one side of the trail is the mountain face and the other the sheer cliffs that …
Ghosts, Truth Encounter, and Things that go Bump in the Night
Occasionally, I watch these ghost hunter or ghost buster shows on TV. Some (I will call "ghost hunters") claim that they are being objective... but clearly they are hoping to find evidence of the paranormal, thus evidencing the inadequacy of a naturalistic view of the world. The others (I will call "ghost busters") also claim …
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Belief vs Doubt vs Disbelief V (Welcome 2013!!)
Here is another quote from "In Praise of Doubt" by Peter Berger and Anton Zijderveld: "In his classic study When Prophecy Fails (1956), Leon Festinger argued that people who are deeply committed to a belief and its related courses of action won't lose this belief when events falsify its assertions, as when a prophesied event …
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